Heian-kyo: The Heart of Japan’s Golden Age
EQ: What was life like for aristocrats during the
Heian period?
A New Capital
• The emperor moved the capital from Nara to Heiankyo (Kyoto) because he thought Buddhist priests
had become too powerful and he wanted a larger,
grander capital.
The Rise of the Fujiwara Family
• Though the emperors claimed to be descended from
the Sun Goddess, the Fujiwara clan controlled Japan
for nearly 300 relatively peaceful years.
• The Fujiwara gained control by marrying into
imperial family and ruling as regents.
Social Position In the Heian Court
• Rank was determined
by the family one came
from.
• The nobles received
their wealth from taxes
on the peasants.
• The rankings affected
wealth, what a person
could wear, how high a
gate could be, and the
harshness of
punishments
Beauty and Fashion During the
Heian Period
• Courtiers prized beauty,
elegance, and fashion.
• The ability to recognize
beauty was valued over
qualities like generosity and
honesty.
• Men had small beards.
• Women had long hair,
blackened their teeth, wore
perfume, whitened their
faces, put red on cheeks and
lips, plucked eyebrows and
painted them higher on
forehead and wore many silk
robes.
Entertainment in the Heian Court
• Aristocrats had many games that tested athletic,
poetic, or artistic skills.
• Dancing was popular and bugaku combined
dancing, music and drama.
Sculpture and Painting During the
Heian Period
• Japanese carvers would
carve individual parts of a
sculpture and join the pieces
together to create a single
work of art.
• “Japanese painting,”
yamato-e were often secular
and had 4 main types:
landscapes showing the 4
seasons, places of natural
beauty, people doing
seasonal tasks, and scenes
from literature
Writing and Literature During the
Heian Period
• Kana or “borrowed letters”
was further divided between
the more formal “katakana”
and the simpler “hiragana.”
• Men used katakana; women
used hiragana.
• Women become the great
writers of the age.
• Lady Murasaki Shikibu wrote
The Tale of Genji, often
called the world’s first novel.
She also wrote a diary.
• Sei Shonagon wrote Pillow
Book.
• An unknown noblewoman
wrote a diary: The Gossamer
Years.
The End of the Heian Period
•
1.
2.
3.
The Heian period ended for three reasons:
The wealthy owners of large estates paid no taxes.
Law enforcement broke down and bandits roamed the land.
Struggles over land and power led to civil war and the rise of
new military leaders.
Ch. 20 Visual Vocabulary (Illustrations!)
The Influence of Neighboring Cultures on
Japan
1. cultural diffusion (p. 219)
2. Prince Shotoku (p. 220)
3. Seventeen Article Constitution (p. 221)
4. Taika Reforms (p. 221)
5. Shinto (p. 222)
6. kanji (p. 224)
7. kana (p. 224)
8. tanka (p. 224)
9. pagoda (p. 226)
10. gagaku (p. 226)
The Influence of Neighboring Cultures on
Japan
Review Questions for Ch. 20 Pg. 219
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Where are China and Korea located in relationship to Japan? Why
did this location allow for Japan to be influenced by many cultures
at once?
When did Prince Shotoku come to power? Which cultures did he
admire? How did he rule Japan? What was life like for people
during his reign?
Which Chinese ideas about government did Japanese rulers
adopt? During the ninth century, what happened in Japan that
made their government different from China’s?
In what ways was Nara similar to the Chinese capital city? In what
way was it different?
How did Buddhism spread through Korea into Japan? Explain how
Buddhism and Shinto blended together.
Describe how the Japanese adopted aspects of Chinese
language, poetry, and sculpture.
Tanka Poetry Due Monday Dec.
1st
• Tanka is based on having a set number of syllables in
each line of a poem with 31 syllables in total divided
over 5 lines.
–
–
–
–
–
First line 5 syllables
Second line 7 syllables
Third line 5 syllables
Fourth line 7 syllables
Fifth line 7 syllables
codes.
Life has Suffering
Meditation is Peaceful
Japan mixed Beliefs
Shintoist celebrate life
Buddhist respect moral
• The poems are often devoted to love and to the
beauty of nature.
• Your assignment today is to write 2 poems.
– One focused on a topic from chapter 20
– the other related to something/someone you are grateful
for having in your life.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
•
Ch. 21 “Heian-Kyo: The Heart of
Japan’s Golden Age” Visual
Vocabulary
Heian period (p. 229)
Golden Age (p. 229)
corruption (p. 230)
Heian-kyo (p. 230)
Fujiwara family (p. 231)
courtier (p. 233)
Kemari (p. 234)
Rango (p. 234)
yamato-e (p. 235)
Imagery (p. 236)
Tale of Genji (p. 237)
Noh theater (p. 239)
Remember to make a large and colorful visual to go along with the
explanation of each term.
Japan’s Early Historic Period
The Imperial Court (A.D. 400-783)
In what ways did neighboring
cultures influence Japan?
A Divine Emperor:
The Spiritual Leader of Japan
• Prior to A.D. 400, uji (clans) ruled separate
areas of Japan.
• One of these clans, the Yamato, produced
Japan’s first emperor.
• Emperor considered descendant of Sun
Goddess and most important person in
Shinto (Japan’s native religion)
• Emperor respected for religious power not
political power.
• Various uji fought to be the emperor’s
chancellors (chief advisors)
Chinese Influences on the
Japanese Court
• Modeled capital city of Nara after China’s Chang’an
• Japanese emperors sought both spiritual and political
powers
• Prince Shotoku adopted aspects of Chinese
government, Confucian calendar, and legal ideas
• Chinese character script adopted by Japanese court
officials
• Memorization of Chinese poetry popular
• Collected Chinese works of art
• Curving tile roofs became popular in the homes of
aristocrats.
Taika Reforms (A.D. 646)
• Introduced by Japanese emperor, Tenchi
• Designed to make Japan’s government
like that of China’s Tang dynasty
• Vast land reforms placed all rice producing
lands in the hands of the emperor.
Refined Court Life During the
Heian Period (A.D. 794-1185)
What was life like for aristocrats
during the Heian period?
Nobles Gain Power
Over the Imperial Family
• Earned trust of emperor and thereby gained
control over chancellorship
• Married daughters to crown princes, ensuring
that those who ascend to throne were
grandsons
• Received most of government’s high ranking
posts
• Convinced the emperor to give shoen (tax
free estates) as gifts to loyal nobles
• Dominated the emperor so that his role
became almost completely ceremonial
The Refined Life of Court
Nobles
• Maintained elegant appearance-clothing
and make-up were elaborate
• Practiced restrained behavior-rude to
laugh with one’s mouth open
• Always maintained decorum-letters had to
be folded properly
• Devoted leisure time to pursuing past
times (playing games)
The Rise of the Provincial
Nobles
• Provincial nobles were rugged,
independent, and led private armies
• Became more powerful as court nobles
isolated themselves
• Constantly battled with one another over
control of provinces.
Extra Credit Activity
http://heianhousehold.weebly.com/index.html
Go to the above mentioned website and complete
each of the activities associated with a Heian
Household.
The questions and activities are all connected to
your textbook. Some of the questions may be
slightly different. Please turn in your answers on a
separate sheet of paper. This assignment is due
Monday.
Story Board: Ch. 21 Heian-Kyo: The Heart of Japan’s
Golden Age
EQ: What was life like for aristocrats during the Heian
period?
• You will create a story
board based on your
readings from Ch. 21
• On the cover include the
title of the chapter and the
essential question (on the
whiteboard).
• Remember a story board
has three components for
each section:
– A summary w/ a title
– A detailed illustration
– A question not answered in
text based on section
• There are 9 sections
– 21.2-21.10
A diary entry…
•
Pretend you are a nobleman or noblewoman living in Heian-kyo during the 10th century. You are keeping
a diary of your impressions of daily life during that time period. Use your Story Board to help you create a
diary entry that describes one day in your life while visiting the emperor’s court.
Your diary entry should
•
indicate the date.
•
be written in the first person. Use “I,” “me,” “we,” and “us.”
•
have information about at least six aspects of your life.
These might include a description of the capital city or your house, the leaders of government, your rank, what
is considered beautiful or fashionable, what is considered bad manners, games you enjoy, art and literature of
the day, or your attitude toward the poor.
•
•
include at least one tanka poem that expresses your feelings.
have at least three colorful pictures to illustrate key ideas.
Add creative touches to make your diary entry personal. It should be free of grammatical and spelling errors
and be approximately two handwritten pages.
The following website will help you with the assignment.
http://heianhousehold.weebly.com/index.html
You could also use your text book Ch. 21 “ Heian-kyo: The Heart of Japan’s Golden Age”; pages 229-239.
Due date is December 14th
Create an Outline: Example
• Paragraph 1- Introduction (include social rank and
city)
• Paragraph 2- Describe House (include art yamatoe) (Picture)
• Paragraph 3-Fashion and Beauty (manners?)
• Paragraph 4- Things you did for fun Kemari/Rango
(Picture)
• Paragraph 5-- Bugaku performance (Picture)
• Paragraph 6- Poetry/writing include Tanka Poem
• Paragraph 7-Commentary on the poor
• Paragraph 8-Conclusion
Essay "A Visit to Hase Temple"
"To my dismay, I found that a throng of
commoners had settled themselves directly
in front of me, where they were continually
standing up, lying down, and squatting down
again. They looked like so many basketworms as they crowded together in their
hideous clothes, leaving hardly an inch of
space between themselves and me. I really
felt like pushing them all over sideways.”
Poem "A Dialogue on Poverty"
I happened to be born a human
but I am no worse than others.
Yet vests with no cotton,
mere rags tattered and dangling
like sea-fleece, are hung on my shoulders.
I'm this flattened hut, this leaning hut,
on straw spread on the bare ground
father and mother by my pillow,
wife and children by my feet
surround me, whimpering.
From the stove no steam spurts up,
in the steamer a spider waves its web,
and rice-cooking forgotten,
we moan like thrushes.
Example beginning
December 8, 910
Today is my first day writing a diary entry and I have so much to share
because we visited my uncle in Heian Kyo today; who just so happens
to be a member of the emperor’s court. As we entered the city I was
very impressed with the design of the city; all of the streets ran
perpendicular with one another. It was so organized and it made it so
much easier to know where we were going.
When we arrived at the gates to my uncle’s home I noticed a tall fence
going around the perimeter of his property. As we passed through the
gates there was the most beautiful garden I have ever seen and the
landscaping was perfect. His home was very large. It had spacious
rooms with very little; except screens dividing the rooms and mats on
the floor. The screens had beautiful scenes of nature painted on them;
my father told me the art is called yamoto-e.
As I walked through the house I saw the most beautiful woman
I’ve ever seen walking to get behind a screen. She wore at least
twelve layers of silk robes. Her hair was so long and beautiful
and her make up was done perfectly. You can tell she spent so
much time powdering her face, plucking and then drawing on her
eyebrows, and placing the perfect amount of red onto her lips.
As I was admiring her; my cousin came up to me and invited me
to go outside to the courtyard. When I walked through the back
doors I was very impressed with how peaceful it felt outside. My
cousin then kicked a ball my way and introduced me to the game
Kemari. In this game we kick a ball back and forth to each other
trying our best to not let the ball hit the ground and keep the ball
in the air. Our record for the day was keeping it up 22 times. It
is my new favorite game to play.
Bugaku performance…..
Poetry writing…..(Add Tanka poem here; remember 5,7,5,7,7
syllables)
(5) Fragile old woman.
(7) Grandchildren laughing outside.
(5) The rose is withered.
(7) One by one the petals fall.
(7) One by one the buds open.
Observations and feeling about the poor…
Conclusion…
Jedidiah Jenkins
2013-2014
Lewis & Clark 1804